Low Dimensional Game

Within the temple, Saintess Kelly stood below the statue of God. She was staring at the divine artifact, the Mask of Faross. Her slender white fingers gently stroked the red sun on the white mask, as if caressing the face of a lover.

The divine palace remained brightly lit in the dead of the night. It illuminated the entire temple. The prayers to gods were endless. The Saintess and her acolytes, as His servants, were maintaining the divine palace.

There was a rush of hurried footsteps behind her. But Kelly did not turn around. Instead, she carefully placed the mask onto her face, asking, “Our army has lost, hasn’t it?”

Pope Hodap’s hurried footsteps immediately halted the moment that he saw the Saintess. He felt instantly relieved at just the sight of her.

“Yes, we lost. The wizards and the Owl Knights annihilated our 50,000-strong army at Attica. Even Martin, who was a saint, died.”

Kelly turned around. She had put the mask on, which immediately made her seem like a completely different person. It was as if she had been touched by the spirit of God, becoming aloof and high above.

She then said, “Whether it is the existence of evil, the darkness within the human heart, or the powers of darkness, none of these are worth mentioning before the power of God and His light.”

Kelly raised her head to look out toward the hall. She then walked outside. Pope Hodap followed behind her. They stood at the top of the steps that were outside of the Temple of Light, overlooking the entire city of St. Sarl.

“Light will eventually dispel the darkness. Evil will be annihilated by the power of God. Let the Holy Light shine down, burning their tainted souls forevermore. The Kingdom of God is only open to believers of God and the light. Every single one of these heretics will pay for their actions!”

As Kelly spoke, she stood before Hodap, her in white robes, as if she was one with the cold moonlight. Yet, her frigid image strangely put Hodap at ease, assuring him that evil would indeed be vanquished by the light.

Although the forces of the Church were more than prepared, their consecutive defeats and the rumors about the wizards and the Owl Knights had struck fear within all of the people of the Kingdom of the Church.

“Wizards are the messengers of the devil. They borrowed their power from the devil, then crawled out from the abyss of Hell. They look toward our holy land with their evil eyes.”

“We can’t let them succeed. They want to sink the world in darkness as they drag us all to hell.”

“We will never be defeated. We will eradicate them. Her Holiness and the Holy Father will judge them. The light of God will turn them into ashes.”

The situation within St. Sarl City was fine at the moment. Most of the citizens were extremely pious. Even if St. Sarl City was taken, they would be more than happy to die together with the Church of Light. But, outside of the city, in some of the smaller allied nations nearby, the situation was far more complicated.

This was especially the case for the refugees from the Moore Province. Hundreds of thousands of refugees had fled everywhere in fear and panic. There were no more smiles, as all of them shook in fear, their faces ashen. Those who had seen the scenes that were left by the Owl Knights passed on tales of the horrific wizards and their legions, which seemed to have climbed straight out of Hell.

Everywhere, these people were screaming on the streets. “Darkness has descended. Hell is upon us!”

“They are devils! No one can resist them!”

“They killed everyone! Not a soul was spared.”

“Plague, death, war, famine! Darkness will envelope us again.”

In the many kingdoms and cities around the Moore Province, the refugees crowded the streets, trembling as they recounted the disasters brought on by the wizards. The few people, who had survived the onslaught of the Owl Knights, had become mad. They now only screamed frightening things about death and devils.

The land was filled with wild-eyed women, the soulless eyes of the children, the shattered madmen and the endless waves of refugees. Moreover, there were errant plumes of smoke and countless bodies on the road. All of these sad sights only served to reinforce the terror of the wizards and the Owl Knights within the hearts of all.

The names of Leves and his wizards spread throughout the human kingdoms. For the first time, everyone had now heard about wizards, who were being described as if they were the embodiments of the worst nightmares and terrors. In fact, “wizard” became a forbidden word of darkness.

Everyone feared wizards. But, at the same time, there were even more people who, while fearing the terrible power of the wizards, also yearned for such power.

Even the Gathering of Nobles had not anticipated such power! No one had thought that just Leves and his eight wizards would have the power to push the Church of Light to the brink of destruction, as they went straight for St. Sarl City.

Within the Crete Empire, in the capital of Virginia, Earl Ivens entered a secret tunnel from the bottom of his house. After walking through this long tunnel with a torch, he came to a secret meeting place that was hidden deep under the city streets.

Though Earl Ivens was loyal to the previous sovereign, Elliot VII, he was still the most trusted person of the current Emperor, Elliot VIII. He also maintained close ties with the Church of Light.

As a shrewd man, he had maintained his position at the highest levels of power. He had been the first to surrender to the Church of Light during the succession struggle. He led a large number of turncoats to the faction of the Church of Light, where he was responsible for bringing Elliot VIII to the throne.

Although many people despised his character, even more people admired his uncanny ability to adapt to every changing political situation. No matter who was in charge, he seemed to be able to somehow remain in a position of power.

Wearing a mask, Earl Ivens entered a spacious underground conference room. The torch that he was carrying illuminated the secret meeting room. In addition to Ivens, there were six others present in this secret meeting. They also wore masks similar to Earl Ivens’s.

One person was sitting at the top of a long table, while the other five were arguing fiercely as if something had frightened them greatly. Their emotions had obviously been recently stirred up.

“How dare they? Didn’t we tell them to occupy the Moore Province to shrink the influence of the Church? To think that they now have their sights on St. Sarl City!”

“The Church armies within the various kingdoms cannot be suppressed any longer. The Third Army within the Kingdom of Mara and Cardinal Peter have both turned their forces around at maximum speed. The Mara Kingdom will not be able to stop them. ”

“The Fifth Legion within the Kingdom of Rosa d’Oro is the same, acting under Cardinal Emile. Regardless of the forces Rosa d’Oro has mobilized to stop them, they are heading back at all costs. The wizards are trying to destroy the Church, but we have not yet finished our preparations. It is impossible for the major kingdoms to actually start fighting these legions directly yet. We have not been able to obtain full command over them.”

“As I have said, these wizards, who just popped up out of nowhere, are unreliable. According to the original plan, they only had to stall the Church, which is tantamount to cutting off the tentacles of the Church to all the major powers. Then, we would overthrow Elliot VIII in the Crete Empire, thus becoming independent from the Church. That would allow us to then eat away at the Church, bit by bit. But now, these guys have arbitrarily attacked St. Sarl City!”

Every one of them at the table was expressing anger at the reckless actions of the Wizard Alliance. Yet, hidden behind their words, their fears of the power of the wizards were palpable.

No one thought that Leves would be able to create such a powerful army, especially in just a few short years. The Duchy of Creer had completely fallen under the control of the Wizard Alliance.

Ivens sat in the first position on the left side of the long table, looking at the man in the black robe, who was at the head of the table, “Can we still stop the Wizard Alliance and Leves?”

The man in the black robe shook his head. “It is impossible, as they have already thrown in their lot. The ambitions of Leves and the wizards are too big. They have betrayed us.”

Ivens’s eyes have shrunk. Compared to his previous youthful self, he had become a middle-aged man. His gaze had become more resolute and cruel, similar to the vision of a hawk. “Then we must begin preparing immediately. We don’t want to deal with the rise of the Wizard Alliance after the Church of Light.”

The man nodded. “You all should start preparing. Once the Church of Light is on the brink of destruction, all of us will send troops. We will immediately assist St. Sarl. The wizards are even more terrifying than the Church of Light. But, they still don’t know the rules of the game.”

The man from another seat replied, “Shouldn’t we send troops immediately? The 50,000 main forces of the Church were all slaughtered. Currently, there are only 10,000 Knights of Light left in St. Sarl City. How would they resist the wizards’ Owl Knights?”

Ivens sneered. “Wait a bit longer. The Church of Light wouldn’t die this easily. You have to know the forces behind them. No one knows what trump cards they have hidden away.”

Everyone suddenly sucked in collective breaths, as they thought about the Saintess and the Pope, who had never been in action before. As God’s representatives in Maria’s World, no one knew what would happen in the end, should they act.

Ivens didn’t know why, but he felt expectation welling up within him all of a sudden. “The power of God and the devil. Which is stronger? This will be interesting! I’m really looking forward to it!”